The 50 word mini epic

Primary: (ages 7 – 11) Literacy and language

Students are challenged to create a series of short stories that only contain 50
words. They are given a series of unusual stimuli to spark their imagination and
curiosity and enable them to start their creative journeys. They are asked to
engage in a continuous process of refining and editing to improve their stories
whilst playing with language, grammar and punctuation. At the end of the
activity, the stories will be published into a collection of 50 word stories.

Time allocation 4 lesson periods (but could last longer depending on ability)

Subject content Develop ability to write concisely but powerfully

Compose texts using appropriate punctuation, spelling and grammar
Understand importance of word choice, punctuation, paragraph
division, and structure
Check, edit, and refine work independently

Creativity and This unit has a creativity and critical thinking focus:
critical thinking  Play with ideas to create meaningful and novel outputs
 Consider different perspectives and reflect on strengths and
weaknesses of their own writing

Other skills Communication

Key words Wow words; powerful verbs; paragraphs; editing; inspiration

Products and processes to assess

This approach to literacy is a quick and fun way to get students writing. It encourages the
least able students because they only have to produce 50 words while challenging the most
able ones with a consideration of what makes short writing effective and developing editing
skills. At the highest levels of achievement, students produce and edit a series of
imaginative 50 word stories that use the initial stimulus in a personally original manner, are
correct in punctuation, spelling and grammar, and make use of appropriate language,
structure, and other devices to create suspense, impact, and engagement. They are able to
independently edit and improve their work and reflect thoughtfully on its strengths,
limitations, and the effects of the devices they have used to make the writing more
powerful.
Author: Paul Collard/CCE and Paul Gorman/Hidden Giants (United Kingdom). This work was developed for the OECD for the CERI project
Fostering and assessing creativity and critical thinking skills. It is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO). © OECD
 Teaching and Learning plan

This plan suggests potential steps for implementing the activity. Teachers can introduce as many modifications as they see fit to adapt the activity to their teaching context.

Step Duration Teacher and student roles Subject content Creativity and critical thinking
1 Lesson The teacher may choose to introduce the activity by brainstorming with students what Exploring how to communicate
period 1 might be important when you want to tell a powerful and engaging story in only a short ideas/images in few words
number of words (e.g. vocabulary, punctuation, structure, images, editing, paragraphs,
short sentences, being clear on the most important idea etc.). The teacher may choose to Considering effects of word choice
review and give examples of some of these concepts and show some examples of short (e.g. use of ‘wow’ words/power Feeling, observing, and describing
50 word stories at this point. verbs etc.) relevant information

They can then discuss inspiration with the class - sometimes it can be hard to find Reviewing how to structure and Making connections they previously
inspiration for a story but if you look around you, there is inspiration everywhere. You edit a text haven’t made between the prompt
just have to try and see the world in a new way. and their own experience and
Thinking about inspiration and how knowledge
Teacher shows them a photo or piece of art (see Appendix 1 below for examples) and to come up with ideas for stories
tells them they will take them through a process to help them understand the piece of art Posing questions and analysing
and use it as inspiration (SEE, THINK, WONDER). gaps in their knowledge

SEE – ask the group to tell each other everything that they see. This should be all the
things that are known, the facts that are undisputed, the details of the picture.

THINK – ask the group to tell each other what the picture makes them think about. These
should be memories, previous experiences or knowledge, or other connections they are
making.
Using questioning language
WONDER - ask the group to tell each other questions they have about the picture. They
are only allowed to ask questions. Encourage them to think about the SEE and THINK Developing confidence and
statements and build questions from them. Question starters that might be useful are: I competence in spoken language
wonder…, what if…, would it be possible…, etc. Write all these questions on the board or
on a sheet of paper.
2 Teacher asks everyone in the class to pick one of the questions from the WONDER Composing: articulating ideas in Reviewing questions and finding
exercise above. This will become their stimulus for the first 50 word stories. Instruct them written form new perspectives on them
to return to their seats and take notes on their questions, i.e. start to flesh out
information they could use in their stories. After the teacher is confident that everyone Generating and playing with ideas
has enough information, ask them to spend the rest of the class writing an inventive 50 to produce a meaningful and
word mini epic story. personally novel output
 The only other rule is that they are not allowed to show the teacher the story unless they Editing and improving texts Reviewing their output
have completed at least 3 drafts and can show them plus the final version. After final independently, reflecting on
stories have been checked and the student is happy with their work, they are given a final Producing an output with accurate strengths and weaknesses and
piece of paper and asked to produce a ‘publishable’ copy, i.e. neat handwriting, title, etc. spelling, punctuation, and grammar revising as necessary
3 Lesson Teacher brings the class together and tells them that someone left a box in the school last
period 2 night and no one knows who it belongs to. Teacher produces a box and asks one of them
to open it and remove the contents (prior to this lesson the teacher needs to find a box
and put 4 or 5 unrelated items in it).
Identifying and challenging
When all the contents have been removed the class is asked to repeat the process SEE, assumptions and generally
THINK, WONDER. After they have asked lots of questions they are encouraged to make accepted ideas
some key decisions on who they think the box belongs to, i.e. is it a man or a woman,
where are they from, do they have a name, why are they here, etc.? Students can be
encouraged to consider why they think that and if they are assuming anything they don’t
know for sure. Using questioning language

Then one of the students is asked to become the character they have just invented and sit Developing confidence and
on a chair at the front of the group. This student will only have a limited knowledge of the competence in spoken language
character but, through a process of improvisation, will be able to answer the questions
posed by their peers. The class is invited to ask questions to the character (student) to
allow everyone to find out more. Developing note-taking skills Reviewing and reflecting on
information to generate ideas for
As the class are asking questions the teacher notes down on the board or a piece of paper new stories
any mysterious or unusual facts that come up during the character interview.

After a few minutes the student is thanked and asked to re-join the group. The teacher
and students reflect on the conversation and look at the facts that came from it. Each
student is asked to take one of these as stimulus for their 50 word story. Composing and editing effective As in step 2 but output is expected
texts with correct use of grammar to demonstrate greater
The process of lesson one is repeated that invites the pupils to create, edit and produce a etc. skilfulness/quality than in first
final 50 word story. The teacher may choose to ask students to reflect on the previous iteration
stories and challenge students to focus on a particular area of their writing in this second
story (this area could be identified by the students themselves or by the teacher. E.g. use
of power words, sentences etc.)
4 Lesson The group is gathered and asked to lie down and close their eyes. A piece of music is Making connections between
period 3 played (one is suggested in the resources section below or something else emotive). music, images, and stories to spark
imagination
After the track has finished students return to their seats and draw images that were in
their heads when listening to the piece of music. The piece of music can be played again
 as they do this.

Students are invited to pick one of these images as stimulus for their 50 word story.
Before starting they make some notes that flesh out their picture and bring text into it.

The process of lesson one is repeated that invites the pupils to create, edit and produce a Identifying an area of their written
final 50 word story. Again students can be asked to reflect on the strengths and work that needs more work and As in step 2 and 3, but output is
weaknesses of their previous story and focus on a particular area of writing as improving it in a new composition expected to demonstrate greater
appropriate to context and curriculum. skilfulness/quality than in previous
iterations
5 Lesson The class is brought together and each student is given 3 post-it notes. The class is told Generating unusual and radical
period 4 they are about to re-name the classroom space and asked to imagine that things are no ideas to rename the objects in the
(and 5) longer called as we know them, i.e. the door is not called a door, the window no longer a teaching environment
window. They have to re-name the space according to how they know or see it.

They can be given some suggestions, i.e. the door could become a space portal, the Using interesting vocabulary and
window is actually a witches mirror, the bin is a monsters cave. They are invited to be ideas to rename and re-imagine
playful with the space and write their new names on their post-it notes and stick them to their classroom space
the object.

After about 10 minutes the room should be covered with post-it notes that have new Observing the classroom
words for the objects. The group is invited to wander through the space and pay environment and how it has been
attention to labels for the new classroom. augmented with imagined new
names and functions
Each student picks one or two of the new names. These will be stimulus for their 50 word
mini epic. Again, they should be encouraged to take notes and flesh out the information Making connections between
before starting their story. imagined names and other ideas to
invent a new story
The process of lesson one is repeated that invites the pupils to create, edit and produce a
final 50 word story. The teacher may choose to engage in a final reflective discussion Articulating the most important As in step 2-4
asking students about what they have learned about what is important when writing with things things to consider to help
only a few words and what they have learned about finding inspiration for creative work them write well with few words
in the world around them.

The project could culminate with all the publishable stories compiled into a simple book
and bound as a record of their achievement.
 Resources and examples for
inspiration

Web and print

 Not essential but access to some 50 word stories websites would be useful.
 Suggested music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVN1B-tUpgs
 Further resources on ‘wow words’ can be found here.
https://www.nbss.ie/sites/default/files/publications/mm_wow_words_booklet_cu.pdf
Other
 Paper and pens for research and writing tasks
 Post it notes
 See 3 examples of 50 word stories in Appendix 2
 Art work – see suggested images below
 Box with random objects in it
 A way to play music to the class
Opportunities to adapt, extend, and enrich
 Students can be asked to spell most of the words they need to communicate, using spelling rules,
specialist vocabulary, self-correction techniques and a range of resources
 Links can be made with expressive arts: drama/improvisation, music appreciation and visual art
deconstruction
 Creativity and •Mapping of the different steps of the lesson plan against the OECD rubric to identify the creative
critical thinking rubric and/or critical thinking skills the different parts of the lesson aim to develop

CREATIVITY CRITICAL THINKING

Steps Steps
Coming up with new ideas Questioning and evaluating ideas
and solutions and solutions

Make connections to other concepts and Identify and question assumptions and generally
knowledge from the same or from other 1,4 accepted ideas or practices 1,3
INQUIRING
disciplines

Generate and play with unusual and radical Consider several perspectives on a problem
IMAGINING ideas 2-5 based on different assumptions 2-5

Produce, perform or envision a meaningful Explain both strengths and limitations of a

output that is personally novel 2-5 product, a solution or a theory justified on logical, 2-5
DOING
ethical or aesthetic criteria

Reflect on the novelty of solution and of its 5 Reflect on the chosen solution/position relative 3-5
REFLECTING possible consequences to possible alternatives
 Appendix

APPENDIX 1- examples of photos/pieces of art

APPENDIX 2- examples of 50 word stories

Revenge: Best Gifted
Abandoned in the easy chair once again, Norma fumed. Her children gossiped in the kitchen. They didn’t want
to be overheard saying anything that might upset her.

Norma sniffed. She was ninety, not nine.

Reclining, she chuckled softly and plotted her revenge.
She’d knit them all scratchy socks for Christmas.

The Future Makers

The lifeless tree outside the school gates swayed gently in the wind. The playground was quiet.

Inside, however, there was magic afoot. Tales of invisible water bottles, haunted books and giants were told.
Stories of the future, by the authors sitting in Miss Turnbull’s class, just waiting to write…

Early Proposal
“Darling, you can’t marry your Teddy Bear.”

“Why not?”
“He’s not real.”

“Of course he’s real. You tell me to talk to him when I can’t sleep. Anyway, I’m not marrying anyone else.”

“Darling, you’ll find someone just like your Daddy.”

“Exactly. I’m marrying Ted as soon as I’m eight.”